Synagogue to expand services

Greater Boynton Beach Chabad prepares for growth spurt

Thirteen years ago, the small Orthodox Jewish congregation had so few members that services took place in the rabbi's two-bedroom Boynton Beach apartment.

In little more than a decade, Chabad-Lubavitch of Greater Boynton Beach, now at 10655 El Clair Ranch Road, has grown to a 15,000-square-foot facility on a sprawling, $4 million campus that ministers to a 600-family, intergenerational congregation.

"I absolutely never imagined that we would be able to grow at the pace we have. It is beyond the norm," said Rabbi Sholom Ciment, who moved to the area with his wife, Dinie, and 1-year-old son, Mendel, to establish the synagogue in a locale with a relatively small Jewish population.

"In our first week here, we were advised to 'go home' and not even unpack our boxes, because there was simply no demand here," he said. "Perhaps [our growth] is the most concrete testament to the great need of such services to the community."

Mindful of the continuing Jewish population increase in north Palm Beach County, Ciment has plans to expand the Chabad further. At a recent gala event marking the synagogue's bar mitzvah year, the rabbi announced plans for a multimillion-dollar expansion to serve the community's needs.

The Chabad's "Projected 3-year Community Enhancement Program" includes a 10,000-foot ballroom and social hall, a 5,000-foot library open to the entire community, and a specific area dedicated to Sephardic culture, which dates back thousands of years.

"In addition, we will have an array of after-school and Sunday youth programming from grade school through teen life enhancement programs," Ciment said.

The synagogue's growing early childhood center will acquire added classroom space, administrative offices and an auditorium. In addition, the center will employ the educational principles of the Reggio Emilia approach to preschool education, which places great emphasis on child participation techniques in learning.

"I traveled across the country and visited many early childhood centers, and the Reggio approach is a wholesome approach to working with children," Dinie Ciment, the school's headmistress, said. "As an educator and as a mother I fell in love with the philosophy."

Boynton Beach resident Naomi Itzkowitz said she is thrilled by the Chabad expansion plans and hopes the added facilities and services will attract many of the unaffiliated Jews of the area.

"The Chabad reaches out to Jewish people who don't have affiliations with their Jewish roots," she said. "There are many people who became more connected and have grown spiritually from having this synagogue in the community."

Tied to the Chabad's expansion are plans to open a trio of Chabad satellite centers, one already operational in Lake Worth, and the others to be located in east and west Boynton Beach. Plans are also under way for a 55,000-square foot community center on 6 acres in central Boynton Beach.

Suzanne Goldberg and her family are congregants of the new Lake Worth satellite.

"I'm excited by the synagogue's growth," she said. "We're going to be one of the first families. We'll be able to tell our daughter she was part of the beginning."

Rabbi Ciment noted the expanded facilities and programs are geared to include the unaffiliated and will not be exclusive to Orthodox Jews.

"With this mammoth expansion and satellite openings to the east, west, north and central [areas], our efforts to reach out to the enormous Jewish population on every level and every age spectrum will be greatly bolstered and enhanced," Ciment said.